1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp and more particularly to a vehicle lamp that provides a good depth appearance and draws attention of the drivers of the following vehicles particularly when it is on.
2. Prior Art
Conventional marker lamps for vehicles such as automobiles use electric bulbs (bulbs), for instance, incandescent lamp bulbs, as the light source. Recently, however, light-emitting diodes are employed on an increasing number of occasions so as to meet the requirements for various reasons that includes better designs and reduced power consumption.
Some vehicle lamps that employ the light-emitting diodes incorporate a platy shape transparent light guiding plate.
More specifically, in such a lamp that employs light-emitting diodes and a light guiding plate, the light from the light-emitting diodes that are disposed so as to face one or two end surfaces of the light guiding plate enters the light guiding plate, and the light entering the light guiding plate is reflected by the back surface of the light guiding plate and is thereby caused to exit from the front surface of the light guiding plate. In other words, the light guiding plate is used as a so-called xe2x80x9csurface light sourcexe2x80x9d.
However, the conventional vehicle lamp that uses a light guiding plate as a surface light source has a flat luminescent image; as a result, its three-dimensional appearance is poor, and the impact on viewers is weak regardless of when the lamp is on or off.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention to provide a vehicle lamp that produces a good depth appearance for a vehicle lamp during both the non-lighting state and the lighting state and produces a great change in appearance between the non-lighting state and the lighting state, thus drawing a great deal of attention of the drivers of the following vehicles and the like.
The above object is accomplished by a unique structure for a vehicle lamp that includes:
a light-emitting diode group formed by a plurality of light-emitting diodes disposed in a row so that an irradiation direction of the diodes is directed toward the front region of the lamp, and
a light guiding plate which is a transparent plate and is provided in front of the light-emitting diode group so as to be parallel to the front-back direction of the lamp; wherein
a plurality of light guiding plate units are provided inside a lamp chamber, which is defined by a lamp body and a translucent front cover that covers the front face of the lamp body, so that the light guiding plate units are disposed in the direction perpendicular to the front-back direction of the lamp (so as to be spacedly one on the other), each of the light guiding plate units causing the light from the light-emitting diodes to enter the light guiding plate from the rear end surface of the light guiding plate toward the front end portion of the light guiding plate and further causing at least substantially the entire light from the light-emitting diodes to exit from the front end surface of the light guiding plate toward the front of the lamp.
In the vehicle lamp of the present invention, the light guiding plate is disposed in parallel to the front-back direction of the lamp. Accordingly, the light-emitting diodes are disposed as a light source behind the light guiding plate. Thus, when the lamp is not turned on, the lamp produces a good depth appearance, the light-emitting diodes are substantially inconspicuous, and the color of the light guiding plate (transparent) makes a dominant color as a whole. On the other hand, when the lamp is on, the lamp produces functional color light such as red, orange, etc. in accordance with the functions of the lamp, thus providing a great change from the non-lighted-up state. The lamp draws great attention of the drivers of the vehicles behind and thus contributes to the traffic safety.